Animal husbandry involves the control and management of animals, particularly domestic animals. It is sometimes necessary to physically restrain an animal while it is being attended to. One may wish to control an animal for a variety of purposes such as inspection of the animal, tagging or tattooing the animal for identification, veterinarian aid such as hypodermic injections, and cleaning the animal.
Some animals are small in stature and may be adequately controlled simply by being physically held by an attendant. Larger animals, however, such as cattle must be controlled by other means. It is particularly important that the animal be restrained in such a manner as to effectively accomplish the task for which he is being controlled.
To accomplish such a task, there exists a variety of animal headgates that control an animal's movement by restraining the animal's head region. Headgates generally have three operating positions. The receiving position provides an open headgate, positioned to allow tha animal to enter the apparatus. Once in the headgate, the gates are closed around the animal's head region in a latch position to restrain the animal within the headgate. The release position is similar to the receiving position in that the gates are in an open position; the animal is free to exit the apparatus when the headgates are in the release position.
Prior art headgates do not always satisfactorily restrain an animal for all purposes. The major problem with such a headgate is that it allows the animal too much freedom of movement. This is because the animal is restrained by a single securement unit such as a set of bars enclosed near the animal's head, one on each side. As there is only a single securement unit, the animal is often able to move about freely, particularly in the head/neck region, which is forward of the securement unit. With such freedom of movement, the purpose of the headgate is often defeated.
Allowing the animal too much movement while the headgate is in the latch mode may result in unwanted consequences. The animal may be able to avoid the intended attention, thereby thwarting the purpose of the apparatus. In addition, an animal may injure itself if it becomes irritated and is not properly restrained. Inadequate restraint may even result in injury to those near an animal whose movement becomes wild and uncontrollable.
These problems are substantially resolved by the provision of the invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,517,924. That invention generally provides an animal headgate having a forward portion and a rearward portion on a stationary frame. An animal such as a domestic cow enters the apparatus from the rearward direction. Within the apparatus the cow is restrained by a pair of headgates each having a pair of shoulder bars and a pair of vertically disposed neckbars. While being restrained within the apparatus the animal may be effectively attended to for a variety of reasons including tagging and veterinarian aid. The apparatus includes a locking unit for selectively locking the headgates during the latch position, thereby preventing the animal from exiting the apparatus. When the desired task is completed, the locking unit is disengaged and the animal is allowed to exit the apparatus through the forward portion.
Presently, neckbars are directly connected to the gates by a complex linkage that results in a slow separation of the neckbars as the animal exits. Also, these neckbars are adjustable only in relation to the adjustment of the spacing between the shoulder bars which prevents fine adjustment required for the aniaml neck width and wear.
Those concerned with these and other problems recognize the need for an improved neckbar for an animal headgate.